Senator Johanns e-Update: “Path to Prosperity: A Step in the Right Direction”

The following, is an email I received earlier today from the office of Senator Johanns (Mike_Johanns@Johanns.senate.gov):

Senator Johanns e-Update
April 5, 2011 6:40 PM

Today, Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin introduced a plan entitled The Path to Prosperity to tackle our nation’s debt problem. The plan offers a stark contrast to our current course of trillion-dollar deficits and runaway spending. It cuts more than $6 trillion in spending compared to the President’s proposed budget levels over the next decade, reduces government spending by limiting it to a percentage of the economy, and paves a path to pay off our bloated debt. This is now the second serious proposal introduced in recent months to address our debt crisis. While I may not fully support either proposal in their entirety, I applaud the leadership being shown on this important issue and hope the President will step-up to advance the discussion.

KEY PROVISIONS OF THE PATH TO PROSPERITY

SPENDING

• Cuts $6.2 trillion in government spending over the next decade compared to the President’s budget, and $5.8 trillion relative to the current-policy baseline.
• Eliminates hundreds of duplicative programs, reflects the ban on earmarks, and curbs corporate welfare bringing non-security discretionary spending to below 2008 levels.
• Brings government spending to below 20 percent of the economy, a sharp contrast to the President’s budget, in which spending never falls below 23 percent of GDP over the next decade.

• Reduces deficits by $4.4 trillion compared to the President’s budget over the next decade.
• Surpasses the President’s low benchmark of sustainability – which his own budget fails to meet – by reaching primary balance in 2015.
• Puts the budget on the path to balance and pays off the debt.

• Keeps taxes low so the economy can grow. Eliminates roughly $800 billion in tax increases imposed by the President’s health care law. Prevents the $1.5 trillion tax increase called for in the President’s budget.
• Calls for a simpler, less burdensome tax code for households and small businesses. Lowers tax rates for individuals, businesses and families.
• Sets top rates for individuals and businesses at 25 percent. Improves incentives for growth, savings, and investment.

• Creates nearly 1 million new private-sector jobs next year, brings the unemployment rate down to 4 percent by 2015, and results in 2.5 million additional private-sector jobs in the last year of the decade.
• Spurs economic growth, increasing real GDP by $1.5 trillion over the decade.
• Unleashes prosperity and economic security, yielding $1.1 trillion in higher wages and an average $1,000 per year in higher income for each family.

It certainly sounds compelling, but what does it all mean -in “layman’s terms” (ie. what’s it going to entail for the average, everyday American)? It’s the “fine print”, afterall, that generally spells it out for us and will ultimately give us the whole story …the “bigger picture”, if you will.